Most of the carotenoid-containing functional food, food supplement and pharmaceutical products available in the market contain carotenoids obtained using organic solvents by extraction from plant materials, biotechnologically or by organic synthesis process and do not contain dietary fiber from carotenoid-containing plant material, although the latter has important health, gustatory and technological benefits discussed below. Another problem with these carotenoid-containing products is that they require organic solvents for their manufacturing. However, total elimination of organic solvents from the resulting product cannot be guaranteed. At the same time, presence of organic solvents traces in the product is definitely undesirable for the consumers. Also, organic solvents are hazardous for those involved in the manufacturing process and for the environment (U.S. Pat. No. 7,557,146 B2, U.S. 2004/0131733 A1).
It has been proposed to produce carotenoid-containing products free of organic solvents using supercritical carbon dioxide for extraction from carotenoid-containing plant material (U.S. 2004/0131733 A1, U.S. 2009/0304870 A1). However, dietary fiber from carotenoid-containing plant material is not included in the resulting carotenoid-containing products. Also, the manufacturing process is expensive, includes the agent foreign to the resulting product and may be negative for the environment through the greenhouse effect.
Dietary fiber from carotenoid-containing plant material is not included in the carotenoid-enriched oil, proposed in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,557,146 B2, forming waste solid residue.
There is a need for carotenoid-containing composition which would contain dietary fiber from carotenoid-containing plant material as an important health resource as well as gustatory and technologically important thickening component. And it would be highly desirable that this composition would have increased bioefficiency providing enhanced health benefits.